TURIN, ITALY – NOVEMBER 24: Nico Paz of Como celebrates his goal during the Serie A match between Torino FC and Como 1907 at Stadio Olimpico di Torino on November 24, 2025 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
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Two seasons ago, Como was a Serie A curiosity: A well-funded project on the shores of a picturesque lake, propped up by wealthy owners and helmed by a young manager with a famous playing career behind him.
One weekend win doesn’t rewrite a reputation on its own, but a string of results is starting to. Beating Napoli — a two-time champion in the last four years — at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona this past Sunday is the kind of result that forces the rest of Serie A to take notice.
What makes Como’s rise interesting isn’t just the results, it’s the method. Cesc Fabregas has installed a high-pressing system that remains rare in a league historically built around defensive organization and controlled tempo. That approach was on full display against Napoli, where relentless pressure forced a turnover that directly produced the winning goal. It’s a stylistic bet that flies in the face of Serie A convention — and, for now, it’s paying off.
Finishing fourth last season, ahead of both Juventus and AC Milan, to snatch the final Champions League qualification spot wasn’t a fluke bred by an easy schedule. It was the product of a repeatable system, one Como has picked up right where it left off, opening this season with a draw at Udinese and now a win at Napoli.
Como’s new owners, Indonesian billionaire brothers Michael and Robert Hartono through the Djarum Group, have invested more than $151 million this summer to build a strong squad. Only Juventus have spent more in Italy, highlighting Como’s ambitions both in Serie A and Europe.
Anastasios Douvikas has become the focal point of everything Como does going forward. He led the team in scoring last season, tying for second across all of Serie A, and has already found the net twice in two matches this season. Fabregas’ fondness for the forward’s physical presence is obvious in how central Douvikas has become to the team’s attacking identity.
That centrality is also Como’s biggest structural risk heading into a brutal fixture list. With Alvaro Morata — last season’s rotation option at striker — now out on loan to a Spanish second-division club after an injury-hit season, Douvikas is essentially Como’s only recognized center forward. Fabregas has been candid about the math: A single striker cannot realistically carry Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League commitments across a compressed schedule.
The club has turned its attention to Fiorentina’s Moise Kean in the final hours of the summer transfer window. This isn’t a luxury signing. It’s a necessity forced by the club’s recent success and the price of playing continental soccer for the first time in its history. Over the summer, Como retained playmaker Nico Paz, one of the league’s best young players.
It’s easy to undersell how remarkable Como’s Champions League qualification actually is. Seven years ago, this was a fourth-division club. Now, in its 119-year history, it will play its first-ever European fixture — at home against RB Leipzig, before hosting Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain later in the league phase. The Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium has had to be modified just to meet competition standards, and even then will hold barely more than 10,000 fans for those nights.
That contrast — a small, lakeside stadium with a five-figure capacity hosting the reigning European champions — captures exactly what makes this Como story compelling. It isn’t a traditional giant retooling for another continental run. It’s a newly-moneyed club trying to build sustainable soccer infrastructure in real time, under the brightest lights it has ever faced.
Fabregas has been careful to downplay talk of a title challenge, and the caution is warranted: It’s only the second round of the season.
“Playing every three days at this level isn’t easy,” Fabregas said.
These expectations are no longer laughable. Como has already shown it can beat a title contender like Napoli away from home, using a style few in the league are equipped to counter. Whether that translates into sustained contention will hinge almost entirely on squad depth.
If it can solve the striker equation, Como enters its first-ever European campaign as a team that has already proven it can win the moments that matter. If it can’t, the same pressing identity that got it here could be undone by fatigue across three competitions. Either way, Serie A’s newest overachiever has stopped being a novelty and started being a genuine subplot of the season.
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